<!-- wp:html --><p>Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/Reuters</p>
<p>How is it that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/25/vivek-ramaswamy-rightwing-elite-close-ties-leonard-leo-peter-thiel?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other">tech bro</a> <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/keyword/vivek-ramaswamy">Vivek Ramaswamy</a>, a self-described “skinny kid with a funny name” who has never held public office, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4156290-ramaswamy-on-why-he-didnt-vote-in-several-elections-i-was-a-jaded-person-in-my-twenties/">rarely even votes</a>, and has been on <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/lose-yourself-vivek-ramaswamy-haunted-flip-flops">both sides of numerous issues</a> (<a href="https://twitter.com/JoeNBC/status/1695438222325657737">including his take</a> on <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/keyword/donald-j-trump">Donald Trump</a>), became the hottest commodity in the Republican Party? How was he considered one of the big winners of <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/kareem-abdul-jabbar-on-the-2024-republican-debate">Wednesday night’s debate</a> (<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2023/poll-republican-presidential-debate/">second only</a> to <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/keyword/ron-desantis">Ron DeSantis</a> in the first post-debate poll), despite his unctuous and demagogic performance?</p>
<p>If you want my honest answer, why should we expect anything less?</p>
<p>In his classic 1944 book <em>The Road to Serfdom</em>, F.A. Hayek wrote about “<a href="https://fee.org/resources/the-road-to-serfdom-chapter-10-why-the-worst-get-on-top/">Why the Worst Get on Top</a>.” As Hayek explained, “the unscrupulous and uninhibited are likely to be more successful in a society tending towards totalitarianism.” Sound familiar?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-and-ramaswamy-show-us-how-the-worst-get-to-the-top">Read more at The Daily Beast.</a></p><!-- /wp:html -->
If you want my honest answer, why should we expect anything less?
In his classic 1944 book The Road to Serfdom, F.A. Hayek wrote about “Why the Worst Get on Top.” As Hayek explained, “the unscrupulous and uninhibited are likely to be more successful in a society tending towards totalitarianism.” Sound familiar?
